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Create Living Cells With an Inkjet Printer
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Tue Dec 12, 2006 12:36 AM
from the one-printer-not-to-buy-from-the-discount-store dept.
from the one-printer-not-to-buy-from-the-discount-store dept.
MattSparkes writes to tell us New Scientist has an article on the use of inkjet printing technology in creating biological tissue. From the article "An inkjet device that prints tiny 'bio-ink' patterns has been used to simultaneously grow two different tissues from the stem cells of adult mice. Surgeons could one day use the technology to repair various damaged tissues at the same time, the researchers say."
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This lends a whole new meaning... (Score:2, Funny)
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But imagine the price of ink (Score:5, Funny)
Works great until... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Works great until... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Minority Report (Score:2)
What a future. I, for one, welcome our new Animated, Noise-making Cereal Box Overlords!
Re:Works great until... (Score:5, Funny)
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Overheard in an Operating Room (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Overheard in an Operating Room (Score:4, Insightful)
WTF
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And I thought .... (Score:3)
Where the hell do you find a printer driver for this? I'm pretty sure it won't be from the Intelligent Design Printer company LOLOL
Re:And I thought .... (Score:4, Funny)
Unfortunately, the technology was released prematurely and is still in its "Plug and Die" phase of development.
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Again ... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Why is this on /. as if it's new? (Score:3, Informative)
w00t! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:w00t! (Score:5, Funny)
Why not skip vim and the printer and stick to your current latex-only girlfriend?
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That would require fan-fold paper which is hard to come by it seems now.
BWAHAHA! Beowulf cluster (Score:4, Funny)
People say I should go out and meet women but I think this is so much cooler!
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Looks like someone's been hitting the egg nog... (Score:2, Interesting)
Printshop for Organs (Score:5, Funny)
Let's save someone some time (Score:5, Funny)
Protein structure for biochemical enforcement of growth factor ink expiry dates
ABSTRACT
A protein structure and associated amino acid sequence providing a set of functions for remotely enforcing expiry dates of growth factor ink.
Inventors: MillionthMonkey
Serial No.: 053243653216
Series Code: 10
Filed: December 11, 2006
Claims
1. An architecture for a system comprising: a greedy ink manufacturer, an end user, an ink expiration date, a hardware device capable of spraying growth factor protein containing inks into desired tissue growth patterns, an application program interface to support same.
2. An architecture as recited in claim 1, wherein a biochemical timer is implemented with adjustable expiry date settings that may be set at time of manufacture, via expression of a sequence of amino acids (see Attachment A) generating a protein that processes an RNA strand at a fixed rate.
3. An architecture as recited in claim 2, wherein an RNA template molecule of predetermined length is used at time of manufacture to control a timer as recited in claim 2.
4. An architecture as recited in claim 3, wherein a biochemical clock is employed to trigger denaturation of growth factor proteins as recited in claim 1.
5. An architecture as recited in claim 4, wherein the application program interface comprises: a first group of services related to discovery of an impending ink expiry event, a second group of services related to displaying numerous dialog boxes to the end user [as outlined in claim 1] asking for money, and a third group of services related to remotely extracting payment from an end user [as outlined in claim 1].
6. An application program interface as recited in claim 5, wherein the first group of services comprises: first functions that enable ink manufacturer to specify an expiry date [as recited in claim 3] and implement enforcement of the expiry date by having a biochemical timer [as recited in claim 4] trigger denaturation of growth factors used in gene expression inks.
CONCLUSION
Although the invention has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as exemplary forms of implementing the claimed invention.
And I'm off to the patent office! Later, suckas!
Publication requirement. (Score:2)
Absence of the "body" of the patent would imply either of two things:
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Title is wrong... (Score:5, Informative)
5th element (Score:3, Funny)
so what if the toner is low? (Score:2)
Paper jam... (Score:2)
Tech: When did you noticed the paper jam?
Customer: Last week.
Tech: That's too bad. Your printer died over the weekend. You need to call an undertaker since your warrantry doesn't cover disposal of the body.
Progress (Score:4, Interesting)
Humanity will inevitably learn new technologies to cheaply and exactly replicate patterns of matter, much as we currently are able to flawlessly and freely share patterns of information. The profound economic effects modern computing has wrought on society are about to be repeated in another echo of the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions.
First we somehow learned how to share information, person-to-person, with language. Ten thousand years ago we used that to develop agriculture; we learned how to replicate plants. Then we automated that with the help of domesticated farm animals and handmade tools. We systematized all of this, and then figured out how to globally replicate and distribute the instructions for making the tools themselves. Another cycle gets us where we are today, where we can use all of the available knowledge and tools to design the *next* generation of whatever it is we're trying to do with ourselves.
So where are we going with all this, besides "burning" a batch of Viagra, Ciprofloxacin, LSD, or flu vaccine on your desktop? Maybe we need to keep an open source perspective, so you can at least cook up some aspirin as *FREELY* as you can play an .ogg. You might have to listen to Beethoven while you wait, because Britney, Beck, and Björk are still locked down (although your grandfather might have left you an illicit DVD with the Beatles discography as ancient MP3s).
Re:Progress (Score:4, Insightful)
As someone who has spent the last two decades developing and supporting large software systems may I just say, we are doomed.
BTW: I do share your sentiments about the importance of the current digital era: "For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals, then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk." - Steven Hawking's introduction to Pink Floyd's "Keep Talking".
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The *real* reason for DRM (Score:2)
You can bet your butt that as soon as the first device capable of manufacturing all of the parts involved in its own construction from simple raw materials is produced, a "matterware hacker" is going to feel the urge to make an open-source variant. From there on it's an inevitable progression to the complete breakdown of
SPAAAACE MEEEEAT !!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
All this talk of organs and body parts... Screw that, I'm hungry -- can they use it to grow muscle tissue? Mmm, printed meat.
Once the technology gets established enough to be cheap, it sounds like it might actually become more energy-efficient than raising livestock. And it should be ethically acceptable for vegetarians -- wouldn't some of them at least, who aren't too spooked by the "sciencey-ness" of the whole thing, agree that since the meat didn't come from an animal, it's okay to eat?
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Not as many as you might think.
It's not as if we're all sitting around looking for a loop-hole so we can go out and eat some "pre-embargo" meat or anything like that. Doing an end run around the ethics thing is gonna run you smack-dab into the gross factor for many of us.
If someone ha
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No, the vegetables were selectively bred, that much is true. But, with selective breeding, you can only choose for pre-existing traits.
Splicing in genes from a spider to a goat to produce silk, that is genetic engineering. Very large difference.
Living cells? (Score:5, Informative)
Seems like a dupe. (Score:2)
They're different, but hardly anything that's a new sensational breakthrough.
Printing people? (Score:2)
TITLE: Misleading (Score:3)
Still useful mind you. But creating functional cells de-novo? No. That would be extremely nice, and probably the most nobel-worthy discovery in biology since Watson & Crick's nice little discovery (even if it didn't require a printer, just doing it would be quite useful)...
Sadly, not yet.
Some of us need this tech and ASAP... (Score:2, Insightful)
This research is OLD (Score:2)
Call me when someone is using it for something productive. Otherwise, I'm filing tissue printing in the same bin as fuel cells - especially micro fuel cells - the only time you hear about it is when the research money is running low.
(yeah, I need another cup of coffee.. but still)
Infectious E-mails? (Score:2)
Re:Ooo! I saw this in a movie once! (Score:4, Funny)
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Print me out a Lucy Lu bot instead.